EUROPE SUPPLYING BLOOD FOR THE U.S.

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Published: September 5, 1989

Correction Appended

Americans are increasingly turning to Europeans to meet the need for blood tranfusions in surgery, accidents and the treatment of cancer and many other diseases.

In the United States, regions with surpluses have long sent blood to areas with shortages. But the demand has increased to the point where such domestic shipments cannot meet all deficits, and more foreign sources are being tapped. In some cases, blood centers find it cheaper to buy donated blood from Europe than to collect it locally.

While the amount of blood imported from Europe is relatively small, blood bank officials are concerned that if this country relies more on imported blood, it could become vulnerable to the vagaries of international politics. 'It Is a Shame'

The New York Blood Center met the community's needs during a strike that curtailed its own collections by stockpiling blood and relying on imports from Europe and other American cities. But if a crisis had developed during the strike, which ended last Friday, New York ''could not have squeezed any more blood from Europe,'' said Michael C. Scahill, a spokesman for the center.

''It is a shame that the United States cannot meet its own needs and has to import blood from anywhere,'' said Dr. A. William Shafer, executive director of the American Red Cross's Southeastern Michigan Chapter and Regional Blood Services in Detroit, where some imported blood is being used.

Importing blood does not raise a safety issue because the imports undergo the same tests as blood collected domestically. New Practice for Red Cross

For the first time, the American Red Cross is importing blood from abroad. It is buying red blood cells from the Bavarian Red Cross in West Germany in a move that its officials see as shipments from one sister group to another, akin to those within the United States. Officials declined to say how much they were paying.

The New York area, the largest importer by far, has long imported blood from West Germany and Switzerland. It will soon buy blood from the Netherlands because the other countries cannot increase their exports.

Blood is a cornerstone of the practice of medicine. About 2 percent of the American population receives a transfusion of blood or blood products each year, the Red Cross says. But there is no single repository for data on the amount of blood collected in this country. #6% of Americans Donate While demand has increased, the number of Americans who give blood has remained steady at about 6 percent of the population. In New York the number is less than 5 percent. About 40 percent of the nation's population is eligible to donate blood; the others are ineligible for reasons of age or health. Donors must weigh at least 110 pounds, be in good health and be from 17 to 76 years old.

Steps to urge more people donate their own blood before elective surgery and to salvage more blood lost in operations, though helpful, have not solved the chronic blood shortage in the United States.

Use of advanced genetic techniques to make a substance, erythropoietin, to increase production of red cells in the body may eventually cut the nation's need for red cells by up to 4 percent. Researchers are trying to grow blood cells in the laboratory and to develop synthetic blood. But practical application is still years away.

Of the estimated 12 million units of blood transfused in this country each year, about 280,000 are imported from Europe. That includes more than 250,000 units imported by the New York Blood Center, or 30 percent of the red cells that are transfused in the metropolitan area. New York gets 21,000 additional units of blood from Louisiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.

Nelson Groh, an official of the American Red Cross in Washington, said his organization expected to import about 30,000 units of blood from Bavaria this year. About 20,000 of the imported units will go to Dr. Shafer's group in Detroit, and the rest will be shipped to Washington and to the Wilkes-Barre and Scranton area of Pennsylvania.

In a trial phase of the program last fall, Miami imported 200 units of blood from Bavaria. Dr. Peter A. Tomasulo, who heads the American Red Cross's South Florida regional blood center, and blood bank officials elsewhere in the country said they would not hesitate to turn to Europe for blood if they failed to recruit enough donors in their areas. Reasons for Shortages

Erosion in community spirit heads the list of explanations for the chronic blood shortage in this country. But economics is another important factor.

Dr. Peter L. Page, who directs the American Red Cross Blood Services Northeast Region program in Dedham, Mass., said he decided to stop using mobile units to collect blood from small numbers of donors because of costs of collection.

Instead, he said, it was more economical to buy blood from Red Cross centers in Vermont, New Hampshire, St. Paul, Buffalo, Omaha, Portland, Ore., and other areas. Blood can be bought domestically for about $50 a unit from surplus areas, as against $100 a unit when it is collected locally from small groups.

Correction: September 7, 1989, Thursday, Late Edition - Final An article on Tuesday about an increase in blood imports to the United States misstated the type of blood -called the universal donor - that can be transfused to a patient with little risk of reaction. It is O negative, not O positive.